Wednesday's Commodities Roundup

Published 9:00 pm, Tuesday, April 9, 2002

Crude oil and products futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange ended mostly higher Wednesday as Venezuela's general strike disrupted petroleum supplies for another 24 hours.

May crude oil futures rose 31 cents to close at $26.13 a barrel.

The Venezuelan strike takes on new urgency in the wake of Iraq's 30-day embargo of its oil exports, which began Monday, to pressure Israel out of Palestinian territories.

"The chief bullish factor is the loss of supply from Iraq and Venezuela," said Tim Evans, analyst at IFR Pegasus. "Inventory data (showing net builds) was a limiting factor, keeping the lid on the market."

Heating oil and gasoline futures sustained new increases. May heating oil last traded at 67.84 cents a gallon, up .4 cent, while May gasoline futures rose half a penny to settle at 83.44 cents a gallon.

Natural gas futures for May delivery finished the day on the Nymex at $3.184 per 1,000 cubic feet, down 1.7 cent.

In London, Brent crude from the North Sea traded at $26.01, down 7 cents.

On Tuesday, Fedecamaras, Venezuela's biggest business group, and the one million-member Venezuelan Workers Confederation launched a 24-hour general strike and on Wednesday extended it by another 24 hours to support dissident workers at Petroleos de Venezuela. They warned they may continue the strike indefinitely to weaken President Hugo Chavez's government.

Oil and products loadings and production have been disrupted, industry sources say, although the Venezuelan oil minister denied that PDVSA was planning to declare a force majeure, which if implemented would allow the company to not be bound by contract terms.

Venezuela is among the top four oil exporters worldwide, sending nearly 1 million barrels of crude daily to the United States alone. That makes it the No. 3 U.S. supplier.

In other commodity trading Wednesday:

_Pressured by the weight of seven straight new contract lows in the neighboring lean hog pit, April CME cattle futures fell to their 1.5-cents-per-pound daily limit floor Wednesday, ending the day there at 67.42 cents. In less than one month, the April contract has lost 8.65 cents per pound, or 11.4 percent, from its recent peak hit on March 11.

_Gold futures regained the $300 level, carried along by some early silver buying by speculative funds. The June future rose $3 to $302.50 a troy ounce. The gain was accelerated by the triggering of buy stops, or preplaced purchase orders, traders said.

Now Playing:

_CBOT corn futures fell to new lows after a late burst of selling by speculative funds. The May future fell 1.5 cents to $1.9975 a bushel. Traders said the fund selling was a response to early gains resulting from buying of call options, which confer the right but not the obligation to buy underlying futures.